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Jessica is 26 years old. She believes in making purposeful choices, being active in her community, and in enjoying life to its fullest. She is a college graduate, a cancer survivor, writer, knitter, home decorator and general crafty-type person. She lives with her sweet husband, exuberant little girl, and a dog that thinks it's a cat. Together they enjoy playing board games, camping, traveling, and kayaking.

make it monday: a gender reveal party

Until last Sunday I had never been to a gender reveal party. I follow several party-planning blogs, and have seen some very cute ones done before, but it wasn’t really appropriate for my situation (I was graciously given 4 baby showers with out asking for a one of them!). Though gender reveals don’t typically involve gifts, it was just one more thing that I didn’t really need.

In any case, I recently had the oppertunity to plan a gender reveal party for a family friend. She helped so much with my wedding, so it was a pleasure for me to get to plan this party for her. She is pregnant with her fourth baby, and already has three girls!

The first thing to do at this party was:

Some people came dressed in the color they were voting for, but for those who were didn’t I made these clothes pins. One on side they are pink, the other side is blue. I figured it was better than doing half and half, since there may have been more votes for one gender.

I picked up these fruity tootsie rolls at Party city for cheap. The had a bulk candy section where you could pick whatever you wanted.

Of course, before taking your own vote, perhaps you should know what the Mom and Dad were guessing:

Then of course we had color coded drinks:

Pink lemonade

And Mixed Berry Punch

I personally am not a fan of kool-aid, so I decorated water bottles too:

Some how I only got a picture of the boy-themed bottles, but there were also some that said “Mini Jamie”, “Girl # 4″ and “Baby Girl!”. I made these with craft paper, and then taped them on so they would last while sitting in ice. The “bee” doodle going around the water bottles was drawn by me, then I scanned it, copied and pasted a bunch more, printed and cut them out to add to the labels.

And you may be asking “what’s with the bees?” – well, it was a bee-themed party, in that the main question every one wanted to know was:

What gender will the baby Bee?

I made that cake, and I also made these…

Chocolate covered s’mores. I saw these on the Pioneer Woman’s website, and thought they would be cute decorated like little “bee” bodies. Unfortunately they were 1000 times messier than pioneer woman let on.

On the dessert table I also did to 12 x 12 pages for people to suggest baby names.

These pictures were taken after only a few guests had arrived, but by the end of the party they were full. Unfortunately, in my opinion, people did not suggest real names, rather they suggested off the wall nouns. The couple laughed it off, but it wasn’t very polite.

We did a potluck style meal, so every one brought a dish to share and the guests of honor provided the burgers and hotdogs. After every one had eaten we all gathered around for them to cut the cake. They didn’t know what they were having because the ultrasound tech had sealed the pictures in an envelope that was then delivered to me and my Mom.

As they cut the cake Jamie got really excited, saying “I know what it is and you all don’t!!!!”. She cut a slice, put it on a plate and held it up. Just as she did this my pre-armed siblings shot BLUE silly string all over the room and the guests.

They are expecting a bouncing baby boy in February!

I made this cake using I Am Baker’s tutorial. This last minute party basically took over my entire weekend, last weekend, that is.

When I plan a party I tend to get a general idea of what the guest of honor wants. Then I go to the craft store and purchase a craft paper set. It usually has several coordinating colors in different patterns. I think this is the easiest way to get lots of fun colors and prints with out having to hand choose each color. We wanted a bee theme, I picked a package with yellow and black – and just went with the green!

I made yards and yards of garland (though none of it is in the pictures!) by punching out circles with a 1.5 inch punch and them sewing them all together. I would really like to have one of those die-cut machines, but they are expensive and so instead I spent hours punching out circles. lol.

The bunches are a bit expensive too. The big flower punch was over $20. The best way to buy these is either when they are on sale, or with a coupon. Never pay full price at a craft store!

So I did the dot garlands, and a “welcome” garland made with the flower punch. Then I also did the food labels, and the name suggestion pages.

She called me last Wednesday to say her ultrasound was Friday and she wanted to do the party on Saturday. Since I couldn’t start on the cake until after I knew the gender, the majority of this stuff was all shoved into just tow days!

The party turned out nicely, the couple is very excited to finally be having a baby boy, and I am excited for them because it was what they really wanted!

Also – I think I may do this kind of party for my next baby. Would you have a gender reveal party?

I really enjoy party planning and getting people together, so any reason is a good reason in my book!

One Comment
to “make it monday: a gender reveal party”

I think gender reveal is a really sweet idea especially when you’re not having your first child and people want to celebrate but you don’t necessarily “need” or want a baby shower. And I love seeing the pictures of them because people get so creative.

I’ve also seen people do what’s called a “Sip and See” where you wait until after the baby is born and then everyone gets to meet the baby and celebrate and I think that’s almost more fun because while the anticipation is amazing getting to see and hold the new baby is really all I want to do, haha.